Trick an elder brother into existence

Guhuo lowered his head and remained silent for a long time before saying, "Yuanjia and the floral-tailed sparrow discussed this; tomorrow we shall bid you all farewell. The sparrow will return on its own, while Yuanjia must journey far to seek the immortal herb. The road ahead is perilous, and danger is just beginning. My seal is yet unlifted, and my divine powers remain suppressed... Being powerless, how can I protect him?" He gave the wild grass beneath the window a vicious kick, and with reluctance and grievance muttered, "If you break the seal upon me, I shall revere you as my elder brother."

Upon hearing this, Luoyu was extremely surprised: This guy actually bowed his head? Ha, it seems his Uncle-Master holds an immensely high position in his heart! Truly, he is a loyal hound!

He scrambled to his feet in a single motion and emphasized, "If you revere me as your elder brother, you must never lose your temper at me randomly from now on, and you must also listen to my advice. Do you agree?"

Guhuo obediently nodded and said, "Very well."

Feeling that this fellow's temperament was somewhat unreliable, Luoyu added, "Empty words count for nothing; you must make a vow."

Guhuo glared, enraged, "What I, the Exalted One, have spoken—how dare you doubt it?"

Luoyu leisurely dug at his ear and replied, "Look, look, losing your temper at random again! How can your elder brother trust you if you act like this? You only need to take a solemn vow; there is no need for you to swear a demonic heart oath."

Guhuo froze, thought about it with indignation, and finally lowered his head once more, dejectedly saying, "...Very well."

Luoyu's mood soared. Before the other could go back on his word, he immediately called upon Uncle-Master, Huangxuan, and the others to act as witnesses. Upon hearing Luoyu explain the process, Su Sangyi's expression became complicated and his movements somewhat unnatural. When his gaze swept over Guhuo, he hastily darted his eyes away, even the tips of his ears flushed red.

Guhuo covertly observed his Uncle-Master's expression, and for some unknown reason, his mood lifted, while his lingering reluctance vanished into thin air in a bizarre fashion. He turned around, grabbed Luoyu, and with a cool expression declared, "We are born as divine spirits, and our status is too exalted and lofty to be treated lightly... We must seal the covenant with blood wine and proclaim it to heaven and earth! If you do not comply, your heart is insincere, and I shall repent and refuse!"

"Alright then!" Luoyu agreed instantly. This fellow was being a tsundere... Sworn brotherhood and blood wine and all that—quite novel indeed! It's just that slicing open one's palm... surely it wouldn't hurt too much, right?

Luoyu originally intended to get the matter over with that very day, but unexpectedly, Guhuo was exceptionally finicky about this affair. After calculating on his fingers for a long time, he finally declared that five days later—specifically February twenty-second, the year two thousand and twenty in the Gregorian calendar—there would be an auspicious hour for sacrificial rites and alliance-making, insisting on becoming sworn brothers at that exact time, utterly unmovable by any persuasion. Very well, since he was the younger brother, he should be accommodated; a few days later would be a few days later. Uncle-Master and Huangxuan stayed behind as well to act as witnesses.

Taking advantage of the time before the appointed hour, Guhuo accompanied Uncle-Master deep into the mountains to form his Nascent Soul. Meanwhile, Luoyu and Qin Yue entered seclusion for a few days. Upon emerging, they passed down a cultivation formula to Huangxuan orally, solemnly telling him that this formula would help break through bottlenecks; he should practice it diligently and not transmit it to outsiders.

Upon learning the function of this formula, Huangxuan immediately understood why the cultivation progress of the two had been so rapid. He slanted his phoenix eyes and stared at them for a long time before suddenly smiling and saying, "Such heaven-defying techniques have actually been passed to me... Although great kindnesses need no words of thanks, Huangxuan is truly endlessly grateful. If the two of you were not already bound heart to heart, Huangxuan would have to offer himself in marriage just to slightly express his meager feelings!"

Luoyu earnestly replied, "I should have given it to you long ago... Why say such things? You even let me have your true blood; such a small matter is not worth mentioning! Speaking of which..." Luoyu's expression suddenly turned very gossipy, "You and the Northern Underworld Emperor... Is there any possibility between you two? Is he pursuing you?"

Huangxuan blinked his charming eyes and said with an innocent air, "What? How could such a thing be?"

Luoyu asked in wonder, "We ran into him at your place several times. If you two weren't dating... what were you doing?"

Huangxuan froze: "I always thought Phoenix Perch Valley had no friendship with the Underworld; why would the Underworld Emperor deign to visit? So that was it... He did indeed stay in the valley for some days, but..." Huangxuan frowned and thought for a long time before sighing, "You must be overthinking it. My lifespan is nearing its end, so how could the Underworld Emperor harbor such intentions? The so-called parting of immortals and ghosts is precisely this: if we build our foundation and perish, we cannot even become ghosts; if our cultivation reaches the boundless limits of lifespan, we find the strength of ghost immortals to be inadequate, making us unworthy of matching the celestial immortals of the upper realm..." With that, he gave a giggling laugh and spun around Luoyu twice, "Xiaoyu is of pure Phoenix blood and possesses the natural endowment of an undying body... If he weren't already spoken for, Huangxuan bets the Northern Underworld Great Emperor would relentlessly pursue him!"

Qin Yue had remained silent by the side for a long time, and upon hearing these words, his face froze into ice. Luoyu glanced sideways at his wife, gave a sheepish, dry laugh, and dared not reply: Brother here was shot in the knee; no wonder the Northern Underworld Emperor always liked to crack random jokes when he saw him... Damn it, he really was a promiscuous, rotten scum Gong! The matchmaking thread pulled by his wife had snapped... It seems CPs truly should not be randomly matched; blind dates simply cannot compare to love at first sight after all...

The next day, Uncle-Master returned from forming his Nascent Soul. Luoyu and Guhuo set up an altar on the grand terrace of the Cloud Ridge Immortal Manor, poured immortal wine stolen by the vixen, and the two brothers made a blood oath and alliance: Luoyu as the elder brother, Guhuo as the younger. The seniority issue between these two brothers was completely inverted from the very start... and it was likely to continue generating seniority issues in the future... Faced with Huangxuan's teasing about this matter, Luoyu stated: There is a modern proverb that says: one need not mind such minor details.

After becoming sworn brothers, Guhuo's attitude toward Luoyu changed drastically for the better, occasionally even displaying obvious signs of closeness: for instance, when he found ten spiritual fruits in the mountains, after giving eight to Uncle-Master, out of the remaining two, one was actually reserved for Luoyu. Luoyu heavily praised his younger brother's progress, and the cool younger brother let out a cold hum, turned around, and ran over to Yuanjia, acting as if he accidentally leaked the fact that he had been "praised by his elder brother," then secretly observed Yuanjia's reaction.

Uncle Su was naturally pleased to hear such news: this fierce beast was learning to get along well with people, which was indeed worthy of praise! Therefore, he did not stint on his compliments—whereupon Guhuo was fulfilled, taking advantage of Uncle-Master's good mood to nuzzle and act spoiled in all sorts of ways; and turning back, he felt that Luoyu also deserved credit, so the next time any benefits came up, he remembered to reserve a share for him as well... In this way, a virtuous cycle was formed.

Uncle-Master had ascended to the Nascent Soul stage. Despite Luoyu and Qin Yue's earnest attempts to persuade him to stay a few more days, he still could not resist the urge to go harvest the immortal herb. Although this matter could not be rushed, it was nonetheless a major event, so the young couple found it difficult to continue detaining him. Observing that Guhuo was behaving well, they decided to lift his seal—doubt not the person you employ, employ not the person you doubt.

Luoyu had once tried to lift a seal for Guhuo before and remembered it vividly, making the process extremely smooth this time around.

However, this seal had after all been cast by an ancient mighty cultivator, backed not only by formation techniques but also by suppressed divine power. Aside from undoing the rune array, Luoyu also had to spend a great deal of time neutralizing the residual magical power left behind by the caster.

Seven days later, the very last layer of the seal was finally dissolved.

The moment the seal broke, the aura emanating from Guhuo suddenly transformed—though no auspicious signs appeared, all living creatures within a radius of ten thousand miles experienced a spine-chilling sense of crisis in a split second: it was as if a profound, boundless force was pressing down upon their souls, surging, domineering, freezing everything in place, taking over and controlling their lives, rendering absolute resistance impossible... An ice-cold chill penetrating deep into the marrow suddenly welled up.

Luoyu bore the brunt of it and shivered violently. Fortunately, the feeling came and went quickly, much like being suddenly startled by something while walking past a graveyard in the middle of the night. Guhuo had just regained his power, and for a moment his body had slipped out of control, causing his cultivation base to leak outward; yet it recovered in merely an instant. If this fellow had harbored malicious intent, Luoyu and the surrounding spectators would have had no choice but to drop to their knees.

Qin Yue similarly enjoyed a baptism of Guhuo's "superior aura." After the goosebumps on his skin subsided, his heart began to beat wildly: This was the strength of a Mahayana cultivator! He was merely like someone waking up with an improper sleeping posture, whose body had gone numb and who then bared his teeth while letting out a heavy breath; yet he himself was like a gnat, sent spinning into confusion by that single breath... The gap was so vast that it was truly extremely irritating!

Qin Yue stared straight at Guhuo, his gaze burning yet unwilling, restrained yet eager to try; but knowing full well the gap between them, he finally had to withdraw his gaze silently, deeply suppressing the restless urge within his heart.

The next day, Uncle-Master and Huangxuan finally took their leave.

Luoyu patted his chest to assure Huangxuan, asking him to wholeheartedly assist Uncle-Master in promoting the immortal herb; he also left a long letter for Guhuo, detailing the elder brother's expectations, encouragement, and demands, telling him to listen well to Uncle-Master and not make him angry; finally came the bait and the warning: he was about to enter seclusion to research a sealing technique, and once he mastered it, he would be able to freely enter and exit the group formation barrier; if he misbehaved, this sealing technique would not be taught to him, and the next time Uncle-Master returned to the Verdant Bamboo Courtyard, he would simply be abandoned inside the formation and left behind.